This prompt is inspired by a Jane Wong poem, “The Waiting.” When you read the poem, note Wong’s use of metaphor and simile and how they electrify her writing. She calls open palms “little pads of butter.” She compares the black tip of the bobcat’s tail to a pencil she wants to sharpen. At the end, she describes feeling like a “bank vault had opened.” Her language is surprising, just like her encounter with a wild animal. Notice how she carefully describes the bobcat and the bobcat’s prey and her own body. Her descriptions support the mood of the poem, the bodies in the poem.

Read the poem: https://poets.org/poem/waiting

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Prompt: Sometimes what comes to us . . .